


warm hearths

by northerndavvn



Category: The Hobbit (2012), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Family feelings, Gen, i'm posting from my phone sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-01
Updated: 2013-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-07 05:00:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/744530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northerndavvn/pseuds/northerndavvn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's tenderness, Nori learns later, and it's strange because he'd never seen it as a small dwarfling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	warm hearths

**Author's Note:**

> i forgot my notebook at school and i'm on spring break rn so no updates for sticky fingers until next week
> 
> EDIT;; i fixed the formatting haha sorry about that

Nori is not entirely senseless, no matter what Dori would like to believe.

Nori is smart, enterprising, clever, ruthless, and in possession of quiet feet and nimble fingers. He has a clear head and a meticulous mind. He knows his work and he knows his crimes.

And thieving isn't always clean work, much as he might have wished it was. Sometimes a job went bad, for all of his careful planning. He's killed people, had his hands covered in red and felt the hot spray on his face. He leaves that out when he tells Ori of his adventures and ignores Dori's glare.

Some nights, though, when he's too far in his drinks and it's quiet enough to think, Nori's imagination kicks in. He'll wonder about those poor sods who've fallen to his blades- what were they like? What were their last thoughts about? Did they have homes, families? And eventually his mind'll wander back to that lad that he cut into a week back who reminded him so much of Ori and his throat will seize up and suddenly he can't breathe. 

Those are the times he'll go find his brothers.

It doesn't matter where he's at or what job he's in, because the carefully built walls to keep the world away have crashed down and he's absorbed by an all-consuming need to _go_ , to make sure that they're safe where he left them.

Ori is always ecstatic, of course, a childlike cry spilling from his lips as his mud-stained, travel-worn brother pushes through the door, hair and beard in disarray. Nori laughs and holds him and there must have been something in the thief's eyes because Dori does not shout, merely purses his lips with a strange expression.

(It's tenderness, Nori learns later, and it's strange because he'd never seen it as a small dwarfling.)

And after Ori settles down and falls asleep against Nori, Dori will make tea and serve it in old, chipped cups. Something will pull at his heart and Nori will offer to get him new ones, better ones, but Dori will only eye him disdainfully and decline and they will spend the rest of the night in silence, sipping tea long into the dark.

When Ori wakes in the morning, he'll be back in his own bed  and Dori will be sad and Nori will be gone.


End file.
